High Court holds that notice/ order not uploaded on the GSTN portal, but sent over an email, to be invalid in view of Rule 142 of the CGST Rules
Recently, the Madhya Pradesh High Court struck down a Show Cause Notice (SCN)/ demand order1 on the ground that the same was not issued as per the procedure prescribed under Rule 142(1) of the Central Goods and Service Tax Rules, 2017 (CGST Rules) i.e. uploading of the SCN/ order on the Goods and Service Tax Network (GSTN) portal.
Facts
● The Revenue authorities issued a SCN and a demand order, which was communicated to the petitioner via
e-mail and these were not uploaded on the GSTN portal as prescribed under Rule 142(1) of the CGST Rules.● As per Rule 142 of the CGST Rules, along with a notice/ order of demand issued in case of various scenarios of non-compliance, a summary of such notice/ order is required to be uploaded electronically on the GSTN portal.
● The petitioner filed a writ petition on the ground that the said order should be quashed since it was not compliant with the prescribed procedure and even violated the principles of natural justice. The petitioner contended that if the order would have been uploaded on the GSTN portal, it would have enabled it to avail alternative remedy before higher forums.
High Court’s decision
While quashing the SCN/ demand order communicated by the Revenue authorities to the petitioner via
email, the High Court made the following observations:● A bare perusal of Rule 142 of the CGST Rules, reveals that the only mode prescribed for communicating an SCN/order, was by way of uploading the same on the GSTN portal.
● When a specific procedure is prescribed to perform a specific act, all other procedures/ modes except the one prescribed are excluded. This principle becomes all the more stringent when it is statutorily prescribed.
PwC comments
The High Court has held that uploading a notice/ order is the only mode of service. It is pertinent to note that section 169 of the Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 (CGST Act) provides for service of any decision, order, notice, etc. under the CGST Act, by any one of the methods i.e. direct tendering, courier/ speed post, sending a communication to e-mail address (provided at the time of registration or as amended), making it available on the GST portal, etc. This point does not appear to have been canvassed or discussed. The applicability of the High Court decision needs to be examined in light of this. Independently, taxpayers need to ensure that they have appropriate mechanisms to track the issue of the notices by e mail/ uploading to the GSTN portal, which are well recognised as modes of service in the GST law.
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